CHAPTER 12: NEW LEATHERS

I slept a few hours before dawn and found Jaesmin in my bed when I woke, curled under my arm. Well, as much as a six-foot woman can curl under a man’s arm. Her hair smelled like lavender and was silky soft as I brushed it with the back of my hand.

Her body was lean and firm, and her muscles pressed against me. She had on a thin negligee that was see-through. Tan lines from working in the sun were visible. I touched her skin. It was soft and warm. I felt desire stirring and extracted myself from the situation. It is just her programming, I thought. She has chosen to seduce you because that is what her programming is telling her to do. And she is not real, I reminded myself.

But would it be wrong? It wasn’t like she was real, and how would it be wrong to follow through with my desires? I hesitated briefly as she turned on the bed to reorient face down and hugged a pillow now that I was out of the bed. The mannerisms seemed too real, too life-like. Her firm buttocks were shaped perfectly under the negligee. Focus! I equipped my gear and went downstairs.

I looked at the door from the top of the stairs again for a moment before I turned and left. I stopped in the town store on the way to the tower. I wanted to see if there was any better armor. To my shock, there was now an entire section of the store with leather goods. Everything from bags to household goods to armor. It only had a few pieces of armor, but they were better than what I had. Curraen, I presumed, had been hard at work.

I talked with Elice, and she confirmed my suspicions. She said Curraen had made me a suit of leather, and I should stop by the tannery to pick it up. I admired his work in the store before leaving. Nothing in the store was lower than rare quality. Guess that is what a master leatherworker can achieve.

Elice mentioned there was a currency problem in the village. There were not enough coins now that people were switching from the barter system to coins. Hmm, I gave her all the coins from my bag for the town treasury. Hopefully, the silver and copper I had taken from the orcs would help. Elice would act as my town bank in the general store.

I briefly considered the security issue; maybe post a militia here? I will worry about it later. That done, I skipped out the door, eager to see what he had made for me. I saw one of the elf teens, Trista, I think, riding one of the black mounts in the fenced-in area by the mill. She looked like a natural at it. But I had other business and didn’t stop. I didn’t even pause when I saw Simba on a roof stalking a sparrow on a gutter, looking the other way.

Curraen was outside working on some hides. “Ah, Lord Tallis. Good to see you. Things have calmed down a bit, and I have a gift for you!” Excellent! He brought me inside, where his son was working. “Thank you for giving my daughters an esteemed job, they could not stop talking about it last night during dinner. They even kept my youngest daughter enthralled. I know nothing about horses, but those mounts are exceptional beasts. Ah, here we are.”

On a rough mannequin was a complete set of dark blue and white armor. It matched the color scheme Galana had picked out for the soldiers. I started to undress and equip the gear without analyzing it. I could see the stats once it was completely equipped.

Very Rare Heavy Leather Armor, Weight 34.5 lbs, -3 speed, +3 agility, +8 constitution, Defense Bonus 60, Armor 5, Durability 131/131

Very Rare Leather Bracers, Weight 6.8 lbs, +4 strength, +4 agility, Defense Bonus 10, Durability 131/131

Very Rare Leather Combat Boots, Weight 3.8 lbs, +4 speed, +4 agility, Defense Bonus 10, Durability 131/131

Very Rare Leather Greaves, Weight 12.4 lbs, +8 stamina, Defense Bonus 15, Armor 1, Durability 131/131

I wish I had a mirror. I felt incredible. I could feel the stat enhancements when I donned the armor. My soldiers would have a chance against the orcs with gear like this. The analysis showed the details of the animal hides that were used. All the gear seemed to incorporate many skins.

Curraen seemed to know what I was doing and spoke, “The quality of the hides is what is important when I craft. The better the material and my skill, the better the bonuses. Only the pride masters had high-quality hide from what you have brought me so far.” He paused and continued reluctantly, “I appreciate the home and this place to work Lord Tallis, but I wanted to discuss compensation for my services.” Ah, yes, he wasn’t on the payroll yet.

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“I noticed your wares in the store. Are you making coins from them?” I asked as friendly as I could.

“Well, no, I am not. Those are your goods. Any coins from sales will go to your coffers. Typically, an employed craftsman owes forty hours of labor a week to his employer.” Curraen said truthfully. I nodded as I had learned that much from Sanso. Being a master craftsman, I knew this man’s price was going to be high. Where was Simba when I needed him? Well, I could negotiate on my own.

“How does one gold a month sound, and I will double it after one year? Also, if you complete a year of service, can you take ownership of the house and this tannery building?” I should look up how much these buildings are worth before giving them away. Damn it, why couldn’t Simba be here. I tried to use analyze, but it didn’t give a value, just a brief description, and health. I returned my attention to listen to Curraen’s answer.

He was disappointed as he spoke, “That is a nice offer, but I was hoping for more. Maybe two gold for the first year and four gold after the first year?” If he was producing gear like this after only a few days, then I knew he was going to be a virtual bank for me. I didn’t want to give in, though. I countered.

“Ok, how about this in addition to my offer. You can retain 5% of the hides and pelts we bring from hunts for your personal use.” Before I could get out another word, he said, “Done!” I suddenly felt like I had been cheated. I figured 5% was maybe a gold or two. But I had forgotten that as our town grew, so would our haul. But then again, maybe Curraen was just figuring out the value of his crafted goods from the allotment. Well, what was done was done. We shook on it.

The sun was mid-morning, and I felt like leveling. The tower had four guards watching the plains. I sent one of the guards to get Galana and the five strongest militia. I looked at the plains while waiting from atop the tower. The earth wall the elementals were building made it harder to see much from the ground unless I crossed over the earthen wall. I could see the plains were well populated again with creatures. Today was a smash and grab, a bloody romp through the plains at speed to gather as much experience as possible.

When Galana arrived, she had a tired look on her face. She had been up all night making bows and arrows. After talking with her, I learned that, apparently, the orc who escaped yesterday had gotten her worried. I was worried too, but I needed her as mother goose for this plains romp. I hoped to level myself and the best warriors we had. Off we went.

Galana knew the general area where three pride masters would respawn, so those are the areas we headed to first. After some easy distance kills, we went north and followed the base of the mountains west. We ran into a massive bear from the northern mountains. We retreated and tried to range it, but it was too fast.

Eventually, Galana said she would melee it to keep its focus, and everyone else needed to continue with ranged attacks to take it down. By the end of the fight, Galana was very bloodied but alive. I checked the log, and the beast had yielded 5000 experience, a massive pelt, meat, and bear teeth. We had to skin it to get it in the bag of holding. We took everything else we could from it as well.

I then made the decision to keep our distance from the high level mountains, of course, I was the one who had chosen to run along the base in the first place, but no one mentioned my error. We resumed our hunt, and Galana healed slowly.

We really did need an alchemist to make potions. We ate jerky and water as we continued for hours, running over encounters and grinding out experience. We found four more pride masters by the end of the day. The sun was close to setting, and we were almost ten miles from the tower.

Galana had asked me a few times when we would head back, now we had only a few hours of daylight, and I concurred it was time. We bee-lined for the tower and found one more pride master on the way. We got to the tower after dark, and there were now ten guards. Apparently, they were worried and discussing whether a search party should be sent. Curraen was there with his sword ready as well. He was a good man. Our group went to the tannery with him and deposited our catch for the day.

69 Cleardusk Plains Lions

11 Giant Porcupines

48 Cleardusk Plains Deer

8 Cleardusk Pride Master Lion

Galana took the porcupine quills to work on arrows. I told Galena that I wanted the next seven best warriors, the second tier, to go with me tomorrow. We were going to hit the pride lion respawn points, and she could stay home and make arrows. She didn’t complain. I was anxious to see my skill increases but held off. I hadn’t leveled, so I resisted. Once I leveled, I would check everything. That night, I went back to drafting and worked on the school/library building. This building kept getting bigger as I worked…